School kids spotted the body of slain Churo MCA Minito, Ol Donyo residents clarify.

Residents of Ol Donyo Sabuk Trading Centre show members of the press the spot in which the body of slain Churo/Amaya Ward MCA Thomas Loktari Minito was spotted by some pupils on their way home on Thursday evening. (INSET: A file photo of the MCA.)

The body of a slain Churo/Amaya MCA Thomas Loktari Minito, who had been missing for three days, was spotted by school children dumped in Athi River just below the Ol Donyo Bridge at the border of Kiambu and Machakos counties. Hundreds of Ol Donyo Sabuk residents are believed to have passed the body for the entire day Thursday without noticing it.

According to information gathered by Thika Town Today, the pupils, who were heading home from school discovered the partially submerged body of a man, later identified as that of the Late Minito at around 4p.m. Thursday.

Ambrose Ngige Mwihaki, a youth representative in Matungulu Constituency says that the children who, out of curiosity spotted the body as they peeped below the bridge, raised alarm and attracted the people who were nearby.

This attracted a large crowd to the scene who later reported the incident shortly at the nearby Ol Donyo Police Station whose officers responded to the scene found and assisted in retrieving the body of the deceased from the water.

“The body was spotted about 4p.m. while the children were heading home from school. It looked fresh and was bleeding from the head. We presume that it might have been dumped there last night, with the perpetrators hoping that it would be swept away by the water but unfortunately the river has little water and it got stuck on a rock,” said Mwaniki.

Upon being retrieved from the river, the police identified him through some documents gotten from his pockets that revealed that he was in fact the missing MCA from Baringo.

“The body of male adult was retrieved and was identified from documents found on him, including a URP party member’s card bearing the name Thomas Loktari Minito of Churo-Amaya ward. It (the body) had an injury on his head caused by a blunt object,” police said in their report.

The body was temporarily moved to Ol Donyo Funeral Home mortuary awaiting postmortem.

The MCA went missing from his home since Tuesday this week, according to family members. Minito was reportedly approached by three people at a hotel in Kabarnet town on Tuesday afternoon while eating lunch with a county official from Tiaty.

The three are alleged to have identified themselves as police officers and told him that he was required to record a statement. They then whisked him away without even issuing the warrant of arrest.

Reports of his arrest was made by the lady with whom he was eating lunch, upon enquiry from the police at Kabarnet, they denied any such arrests adding that the station had not issued any warrant of arrest either.

This raised eyebrows and family and friends started making frantic calls to different police stations to find out if there was such a person with no avail. His brother Johnstone Minito said that they had been searching for him since then all in vain adding that his phone had been off since the ‘arrest’.

The Late Minito had a month ago been arrested in Kabarnet and taken to the Central Police Station in Nakuru County with suspicion of being behind the attacks at the Mukutan Nature Conservancy earlier.

He was accused of propagating hate, leading to the burning of the Mukutan Retreat Lodge belonging to Laikipia Nature and Conservancy ranch owned by rancher Kukki Galmann and was out on a Sh2 million bond after being charged in a Nyahururu court with charges of assault.

Ms. Galmann was after the incident shot and injured by bandits as she patrolled the ranch after illegal herders invaded it.

His death comes barely three months after another Baringo Ward MCA and a Tiaty MP aspirant were killed by unknown people.

Loyamorok Ward Rep Fredrick Cheretei and Tiaty MP Aspirant Simon Pepee Kitambaa were shot dead by hooded gunmen at a nightclub in Marigat town.